Disegno 6 is a traveling group exhibition of drawings by undergraduate students from the most influential and rigorous undergraduate art institutions across the United States. These exhibitions will bring together works by students who have devoted themselves to the pursuit of the fine arts and who find the discipline of drawing to be at the core of their education, regardless of their chosen field.

About Disegno:Disegno is a term used at the origins of art theory to describe the act of drawing as synonymous with the fusion of design and composition. The idea was contained within the disegno and the decoration, or colore, was a necessary but secondary influence on the content of the work, which was embedded in—and dependent on—the drawing.

The separation of the process of drawing and the process of resolution (where the color or material process functions independently from the design) is a very modern one, highlighting the processes of inception as a common language and as the locus for the content of the piece. The practice of drawing, or disegno, in relation to one’s studio practice does not only form the core of the history and traditions of visual communication but has become increasingly potent in a time of pluralism and a hybrid approach to the visual arts as a common thread between disciplines. Drawing ties all artistic pursuits together and is a fertile ground to create a multi-disciplinary discourse on aesthetics, material process and the relationship of design to content.

This exhibition will be organized by Jessie Fisher, associate professor of Painting and Drawing at the Kansas City Art Institute. The exhibition is curated at each institution in relation to the size constraints of the gallery. This exhibition will run during the 2012–13 academic year with exhibitions at each institution showing more than 60 works by 20 students. Students are chosen by each institution as representatives of that program’s vision of excellence within the discipline to create a visual discourse surrounding the practice of contemporary drawing.

This exhibition series continues to act as an unprecedented display of solidarity in fine arts education at the undergraduate level, serving a great function to students—not only the ones who participate in the exhibition but to the student body as a whole, who will be introduced contemporary and regional trends that exhibit a universal language in a time of overt subjectivity in the arts.

Disegno 6 Participating Institutions:Maryland Institute College of Art
Kansas City Art Institute
University of South Carolina
Memphis College of Art